comp/monitor problem?

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-10-01 10:37pm

Awhile back a friend of mine was getting rid of his Dell OptiPlex GL+ 5100 and I took it off his hands just for the hell of it.

It sat in my basement for quite some time until I decided to drag it out last week to subdue my craving to play Loom, Monkey Island etc.

Anyway I get it up to my room, set it all up and it runs fine. But around yesterday this comes up on the screen at start up; and this.

So I hit F1 and..... EVIL SPAWN OF SATAN!!!11!1!!1

Sorry rambling again; that comes up fine but when it goes to the desktop the screen goes LSD crazy and just srcambles.

Long story short, Comp or Monitor Problem?

EDIT: If the above sounds incoherent please forgive me, heavily medicated, sleep deprived right now.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-01 10:49pm

Your computer is screwed. The hard drive controller is failing - or has failed. You'll probably have to buy a new controller card (assuming one will work in such an old machine).

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-10-01 11:07pm

If that's the case I won't even bother; get what you pay for (in this case nothing

)

'Nother quick question, how old is this comp? And what were the extent of it's abilities. For some reason I can't find info for it on google.

Shadowhawk · Post by **Shadowhawk** » 2003-10-01 11:30pm

Wild Karrde wrote:If that's the case I won't even bother; get what you pay for (in this case nothing )

'Nother quick question, how old is this comp? And what were the extent of it's abilities. For some reason I can't find info for it on google.

Your Google is weak.

http://www.samintl.com/mem/n3192.htm

First link on second page.

It's a Pentium 100, and you can cram as much as 128 megs of RAM in it.

I'm assuming that the system is counting controllers starting with 0, because otherwise, there's no way the thing should even get to a Win95 logo.

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-10-02 03:51pm

Shadowhawk wrote:Your Google is weak.

http://www.samintl.com/mem/n3192.htm

First link on second page.

Didn't see that one.

It's a Pentium 100, and you can cram as much as 128 megs of RAM in it.

I'm assuming that the system is counting controllers starting with 0, because otherwise, there's no way the thing should even get to a Win95 logo.

Yep, I can even get into the start menu with the keyboard and play my DOS games; just that the screens horribly messed up: no one should have a dozen mouse cursors onscreen at the same time.

namdoolb · Post by **namdoolb** » 2003-10-02 07:44pm

What happens when you start up in safe mode? The same?

It could be a display mode problem, in which case fiddling around with your display settings in safe mode may very well fix it.

Shadowhawk · Post by **Shadowhawk** » 2003-10-02 09:56pm

namdoolb wrote:What happens when you start up in safe mode? The same?

It could be a display mode problem, in which case fiddling around with your display settings in safe mode may very well fix it.

Yes, that's a likely cause for a dozen mouse cursors, particularly since the Windows logo and POST screens are glitch-free.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-02 10:01pm

I think in windows 95, you can configure your mouse to leave trails. It's stupid, but you can do it. Control Panel->Mouse check that.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-03 01:57pm

You can do that in pretty much every version of Windows.

Anyway, it looks like the motherboard's had it.

It's Bin food.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-03 02:30pm

Oh, I thought it was only in older versions...my bad.
who does that stupid shit, anyway?

Shadowhawk · Post by **Shadowhawk** » 2003-10-03 02:43pm

Chardok wrote:Oh, I thought it was only in older versions...my bad.
who does that stupid shit, anyway?

Actually, it's just another way to increase visibility of your cursor on LCD screens. Older laptop screens sucked so much that you could very easily lose track of where you're moving the mouse to, which is why there's the Trails option.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-10-03 03:18pm

Well, hell. That makes sense! Thanks for the insight!

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-10-03 06:52pm

Well I got it to work in safe mode, turned off the grahics
accelerator, and restarted; this still comes up.

Other then that though it works fine, so....why's it still doing that?

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-03 08:12pm

Because the hard drive controller is threatening to fall over.

At which point, ythe whole computer will go titsup.

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-10-03 09:14pm

Hooray!

......oh

....damn.

Oh well it's works fine now and it was free so.....